The Lying Game is so twisted! Seriously, are all of these people a part of the same damn family tree? “Advantage Sutton” saw the twin everybody loves to hate further her agenda to destroy her perfectly pleasant counterpart. All of these people hate each other!

Episode 3 began with the conclusion of the anticipated sex scene between Ethan (Blair Redford) and Sutton (Alexandra Chando). The sex seemed passionate enough, until the morning hangover reminded us otherwise. Poor Ethan looked like a total wreck as his disheveled self scraped himself off of the cabin floor, unprepared to deal with a chipper Sutton. Not so fast, Sutton. Her sense of accomplishment was completely diminished when Ethan zipped his jeans up and called their rendezvous a mistake all in one fell swoop.

Sutton hightailed it over Rebecca’s (Charisma Carpenter) house. The woman we’re supposed to assume is her birth mother was busy pressuring her former stepson, Jordan (Ryan Rottman), into further enchanting Laurel (Allie Gonino) in order to foster her own plans. Jordan seemed aware of the fact that Rebecca is obsessed with Ted (Andy Buckley), even if he’s unaware of the whole “secret twinsies” situation. After Jordan left, Sutton moped to “Mom” about Ethan’s drunken sexual blunder.

ABC Family “The Lying Game”

At the Mercer residence, Emma and Thayer (Christian Alexander) chatted about a hidden cell phone he’d discovered in his garage. The call log had been erased, but Emma suggested that hacking might reveal more about Alec’s (Adrian Pasdar) involvement in the murder of Derrick. Inside, Laurel got all giddy watching her sister and her new beau. I’m assuming Mads (Alice Greczyn) could care less that her bestie is dating her older brother, now that she realizes that Emma and Sutton are two separate people and that Emma has a soul. After talking with Thayer, Emma joined the ladies inside to discuss Laurel’s latest crush, Jordan. Mads played dumb, refusing to inform Laurel about her wasted tryst with her kind of/ sort of step-bro.

Ugh, Kristin (Helen Slater) was dealing with the most disgusting clogged sink I’ve ever seen. It was like some awful challenge from Family Double Dare, complete with a grotesque facial explosion of goop. The girls suggested calling Ted, a suggestion which Kristin quickly shot down. She’s an independent woman, now. She’s doing it for herself? Nah, call a plumber.

At school that day, Jordan confronted Ethan about his fling with Sutton. He also happened to notice that Sutton seemingly teleported to the cabin that night, prompting Ethan to quiet him up quickly. Emma noticed that Jordan was still obviously eyeing Mads, but a clueless Laurel went ahead and asked him out on a casual date. They make Laurel seem absolutely naive, almost pitiful, but isn’t she, like, the only one who’s not playing games? What’s so immature about that? God forbid a high school girl simply goes to high school on T.V. nowadays, huh?

Mads apologized to Thayer later that day for the shade she threw during the prior episode’s party scene. Still, she refused to stop believing that her father was innocent. When Rebecca arrived on the scene, she reminded us of the new prints found on the golf bag that contained the murder weapon. Rebecca pretended to have a heart and showed what I’m assuming was false concern for Mads. It actually ended up leading to Mads spilling the beans regarding Ted and Kristin’s attempts at mending their broken marriage. Rebecca thought she had Ted all wrapped up and ready to run.

ABC Family “The Lying Game”

Bad news for Whitehorse; his teacher ran a scan on the paper Sutton had given him, and he discovered that the essay was bought off the internet. Of course it was! Long story short, Ethan had a single day to prepare for a massive comprehensive exam to make up for his failure, or he’d end up back in juvi. Just before Ethan could dramatically drop out of high school, Emma broke and offered to tutor him on the entire course overnight. That evening, the chemistry between the two seemed to be obvious, so much so that Ethan nearly confessed to his drunken tomfoolery with Sutton. That is, until Sutton herself showed up to crash the party with some takeout. Later, Sutton further wined to Rebecca about how that dude was just not that into her, but Rebecca was more concerned with her own “relationship” issues. I use the term relationship loosely because Ted is so not interested. Aren’t these girls embarrassed a this point? I mean, does Sutton have any sympathetic qualities to her besides the occasional witty one-liner? Give me something please, Lying Game.

So, here’s what was going on with the murder case. Theresa (Yara Martinez) and Dan (Tyler Christopher) decided to trace the call made to the waitress who planted the murder weapon on Alec. What they discovered was that Alec had actually taken off of work that morning to play golf, and he had a witness that could testify that he never made a call on the course. The cops called in Thayer to answer a few questions in front of Alec, and thinking he was outmaneuvering his fake father, he whipped out the cell he discovered hidden in his garage. As it turned out, Thayer’s evidence worked against him, and it was revealed that the call came from another city in Arizona. It was none other than Thayer playing golf with Alec, so he was forced to admit that Alec never made the call! How about that line Alec delivered? You remember, about how his “only mistake was taking Thayer’s bastard-ass in when no one else gave a crap about him”? Awful. Thayer was trying to get him convicted of murder, but awful.

ABC Family “The Lying Game”

Laurel’s date with Jordan got off to an awkward start, as Mads answered the door and found herself invited to come along by Jordan. Strangely, Laurel was all for that idea. She wanted Mads to judge whether or not Jordan was into her. Thus, Mads was forced to attend some lame-o DJ’s set at that kind of jank club they’re always rushing to. Laurel was oblivious to Jordan’s infatuation with Mads, but Mads, on the contrary, was so unnerved by all of Jordan’s flirtations that she stormed out of the place.

Sutton’s scheme to swap places with Emma again, at Rebecca’s request, involved a tennis match. Apparently, there’s this big scholarship tournament approaching, and Emma was planning on playing. The two agreed on terms. The winner got to compete in the actual tournament, while the loser was forever banished to the dreaded cabin. We know that Emma is the better player, but Sutton dropped the bomb of her sexcapades with Ethan at just the right time, and threw Emma off. In the end, Mads showed up to deliver the news that Thayer was, unfortunately, skipping town after Alec was set to be released. Emma forfeited in order to make it to Thayer’s house on time to stop him.

Thayer had no intention of letting Emma convince him to stay in town, but in a twist, he invited her to come along with him. With so much more Scooby-Doo-ing to be done surrounding the mysteries, she refused. Bye, Thayer!

ABC Family “The Lying Game”

Rebecca caught wind through Theresa that Alec was being released. After running into Ted, yet again, she attempted to play the “helpless victim,” only to have Ted suggest she just make like Thayer and flee back to LA. Yeah, okay. This woman isn’t leaving The Lying Game until she’s the one dead. I’m still not even certain she’s the villainess, though! I definitely don’t hate her. She did make another call to someone anonymous in which she scolded the person for disobeying her and not making the incriminating call from the golf course before planting the phone on Alec! There was that, though. Eh, whatever. Alec arrived home in the dead of night. Honestly, the two of them, seemingly on opposing sides, both looked like they were vipers ready to strike. Who do we root for? Apparently, so much vengefulness between two scary people just leads to more parental sex!

Well, Ted fixed that heinous sink situation, anyway. Kristin, having talked to Emma regarding the situation, decided to postpone a meeting with the divorce lawyer in order to give couple’s therapy one last shot, if only for the girls.

After a bit of a pep talk from Ethan, who passed his test with a stellar C-, Jordan showed up spontaneously on the Mercer back porch to confront Mads and her polarized opinions of him. What happened? *Kiss* *SLAP*… *Kissssss*! Poor Laurel sat gazing through the backdoor, until Mads made sexy eye contact. *Shame*

The episode closed with Sutton showing up to take Emma’s place, and Emma just barely threatening to break the rules of her cabin banishment.

What did you all think of The Lying Game Season 2 Episode 3, “Advantage Sutton”? Is anything likable about Sutton? What are your feelings surrounding Rebecca? What about Jordan? Are you sad to see Thayer disappear for a while?

Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of The Lying Game Season 2 Episode 3, “Advantage Sutton”!